El Carretero

It's not often that an album comes along with an opening track so compelling it begs several listens before you can proceed. The title-track of this beautifully remastered reissue does precisely that. The Spanish lyrics aren't particularly literary: ‘I'm going to the ferry to unload the cart/to reach the goal of my painful work/on horseback we go to the mountain.’ But it's this very simplicity, particularly when accompanied by just two guitars and percussion and couched in the melancholic tenor of the late Portabales, that make this typical guarijia from the east of Cuba so affecting. The song is instantly recognisable; Eliades Ochoa sang it on 1997's Buena Vista Social Club with the full ensemble. But delivered by its composer, and kicking of 16 sumptuous tunes cherry-picked from three recording sessions in the 60s, it is an arrow to the heart.

Tunes such as Eliseo Grenet's achingly sad, son-informed ‘Lamento Cubano’ and Ñico Saquito's jaunt ‘Oye Mi Son’ with its barbershop backing vocals see the tracks run the emotional gamut. But throughout it's the music's stripped down charm and Portabales' unforced manliness that make this a winner. ‘The King of the Trovadores’ returns, then, and reminds us how it's done.